The world is about 4.5 billion years old... 4,500 times a million years old. Yet human-like beings only were here for a little over a million years. Apes with human-like traits have only been around a little over 2 million years. People just like us have only been on earth for 200,000 years... a tiny blink in time compared to the age of the earth. Ancient people worshiped the sun, moon, planets, animals, or the tallest trees, mountains, volcanoes, or dead ancestors as gods for thousands of years. Some even prayed to rivers, oceans, waterfalls, caves, & fire as gods. Where they all right?
To this day there are hundreds of different religions & variations of them where people are worshiping their very own version of god.
Up until 60,000 years ago most the earth was covered in ice during one of many ice ages that lasted thousands of years. Most of the land was uninhabitable except for near the equator, or for some of the most hearty arctic species. Did many of the land animals & people freeze to death or get wiped out just because they were evil?
Up until 60 million years ago, dinosaurs walked the earth for around 200 million years. Where was god then? There were no people. Did the dinosaurs pray? Were they all wiped out after 200 million years because they didn't pray enough or were evil?
Before then, bugs walked the earth. Some flew through the air with wingspans 3-6 feet across. I'm sure it was a wondrous place to look at, but there were no people to pray. Did the bugs pray? Did they get commandments from god? What was god doing when they were the only things walking on land & flying through the air for 1/2 a billion years?
For the first billion years of earth there were no living things on earth. Up until only a half billion years ago there were no animals. Just algae-like plants, bacteria. The first animals were microscopic worm-like creatures too tiny to see with the naked eye 600 million years ago. What was god busy doing during the first 4 billion years of earth? Can we assume the he was content growing algae gardens, volcanoes, throwing around lava & asteroids for billions of years? Then one day, just a few million years ago, decided he wanted pets to pray to him, worship him, fear him, & tell him how great he was? LOL.
If you research the history of god, other gods, & gods of the past, most of them were mean, vengeful, jealous, & power hungry beings. They changed their minds, & opinions for no reason or with no warning. If these were people they would have been judged insane psychopaths.
An now there's the modern gods who say through pain, suffering, misery, your own blood, & self sacrifice you show love & honor to him. Huh??? What kind of creator who claims to love you as his children would expect or demand such a thing? That's just nuts!
If a child bumps their head or falls down, the parent comes running to check if they're OK, pats them on the head & asks them to be careful next time. They don't beat & punish the child for being careless or rowdy, because it caused his own injury. And what parent would decide their children should suffer pain & misery all their life so they become a better person, & to prove their love for them? Insane!
If these are our gods, you're better off avoiding them. They're insane, moody, sick beings who cause more trouble on this planet than they're worth. Hope they never notice you, history has shown that almost never works out well no matter how good you are.
If my cats fall off the bed during a yawn or stretch, or bang their head on something running through the house, I don't beat them for being careless, or playing to rough, I pick them up to check if they're OK, & pet them. And I'd never expect them to go through pain & suffering to get fed, keep warm, get petted, or hugged. I would expect at least the same for an all knowing, all loving, eternal god.
Anywho, I think we got it all wrong. If it took billions of years for something as complex as a human being to appear on earth, it makes more sense that conscious, self aware thought came about long before physical people. If god is a non-physical spiritual thing, we may very well be literally "in his own image" spiritually. Since god is not physical, "in his own image" wouldn't be physical either.
But if you roll the dice a dozen times & it comes up 12, god didn't do it. If you roll the dice dozens of times & it comes up 12 twice in a row once, god didn't do it. If you roll the dice dozen of times a day for a dozen days & it comes up 12, 3 times in a row one day god didn't do it. If you roll the dice dozens of times a day, every day for months & one day it comes up 12, 4 times in a row, god didn't do it, it's just the way things happen. True Gods would not care what the dice say.
When somebody wins the lottery big we think they're lucky. If they win the lottery big twice in their life we think they're blessed. If they win the lottery big 3 times we think they're somehow cheating. But look at those people. Most of them were playing the lottery way too much for many years, so it increased their chances. Millions play the lottery every day. It would be only a matter of time that a few who play a lot may win twice or even 3 times in a lifetime. Once they win, & have more money, they may play it more than ever, increasing their chances for another win. Look at those people who won. They may have been spending $20 a week on it for 10 years. That means they spent $10,000 to win once. It may be a one in 10 million chance of winning big on a $1 ticket. But it's only a one in 1000 chance of winning on $10,000 of tickets over 10 years. After winning big, they may spend $200 a week on tickets. That's a 1 in 100 chance they'll win again within the next 10 years... maybe next year, maybe 10 years from now.
That's why you almost never see poor people win big. They can't afford to play it a lot. The ones who win are usually compulsive players & can afford to be. But just think of how many who spent that much who didn't win. That's how the jackpot gets bigger.
Surely if it was luck or god involved, the lottery & casinos would be out of business because there are many faithful, loyal, followers.
The spot where the grass doesn't seem to grow well in your yard isn't cursed. The weed in the middle of your lawn isn't evil. The spot were the grass looks the best isn't blessed or more loved by god. It's just the nature of things. God has nothing to do with it, & doesn't want to have anything to do with it.
The world could blow up tomorrow (many worlds do). It would be a shame, but probably wouldn't make any difference to god & the universe(s). The material world on this planet has nothing to do with your higher existence, spirit, & the rest of the universe. Worlds come & go all the time. Many times life became almost extinct on earth, & probably will again in the future. If you want earth to be a better place, It's up to us to make it so. How? We don't know yet. But it will be better place to live on if we all try to be nice & wise, rather than mean & stupid. If a bird or tree can live a full happy life, so should we. But eventually all birds, trees, & worlds fall.
Science has already proven other dimensions exist. It's only still a theory that many universes may exist too, but it pretty much almost a sure thing. There may even be an infinite amount of universes. So we may exist far beyond this physical dimension, all connected to a greater universe far beyond what we can observe & experience in this dimension or universe.
I believe in the universe/nature with all it's dimensions, & that's it's part of intelligent universal thought. Not by a plan, but by the way it is. Being in unity & close to nature is being close to the universe. After all, isn't all the universe, other dimensions, & possibly other universes just nature on a broader scale beyond this earth?
Science has discovered the universe is made of almost nothing. The particles that make up matter are so small, & the space between them by comparison is so large, we now know we can squeeze all known universe to the size of a microscopic pinpoint, with plenty of room to spare. And those particles the universe are made of, appear out of nowhere, & then wink out of existence all the time.
We've also discovered those particles change, or change their properties depending if they're being observed, how they're being observed, & who's observing. How does a fleeting infinitely small particle even know it's being observed? Welcome to quantum physics... formerly called spooky science.
We created matched pairs of photons, electrons (electrons & anti-electrons), protons (protons & anti-protons), & atoms (matter & anti-matter) then separated them for each other. If we change the state of 1, it's partner also changes it's state instantly... not at the speed of light, instantly (infinity faster than light). How could a particle instantly know what another particle is doing at great distances? But it happens & is real.
The point is, the photons of light that hit you eye so you can see, have at least 1 other partner than seems to know what that photon is doing. The atoms, protons, & electrons in your body & mind have a partner somewhere in the universe(s) or dimensions that know what they are doing too. That doesn't mean you have an exact double out there somewhere, but it does mean we & everything we're made of is all connected to something else that we can't see.
It's easy to believe in the universe & nature like a Buddhist, because science has already proven it exists.
People can make up anything they want about their gods. If they're a good con-artist or good story teller, they can convince others too. Many people believe in vampires & werewolves too. Those were scary stories written for entertainment hundreds of years ago, & never intended to be believed. Yet the stories were so frightening & convincing, many believe them anyway.
There are people even in America who still believe the world is flat, is the center of the universe, & is only 5,000-7,000 years old (an alarming amount of people). They've even made up their own reasons for why it is true, & why modern science is wrong. People can make up anything they want, but that don't make it true. Science is the study of facts. If science wasn't true, your microwave & computer wouldn't work, & the car wouldn't run.
Christianity really didn't become popular until most books, knowledge, & science was banned, & people became more illiterate again. As bad as the world is today, it's a pretty nice place compared to the horrors of the world & people a few hundred years ago. When we embraced knowledge & science, the world became a much nicer, happier, & more compassionate place. Read your history. The world was a pretty bad & gruesome place to live in not too long ago. It's still a bad place, but at least it got better for a while... but who knows how long that will last these days. Too much greed, lust, carelessness, & self-importance these days. Too many rich & powerful people in control of the world for their own greed, power, & glory rather than for the good of people or the world.
I heard a county sheriff once say, most of the people in prison aren't basically bad, many of them are just incredibly stupid & foolish, so keep getting into trouble.
You may not be good in science or school, but let the scientists & professors do their job, because society is better off with the knowledge. Avoid any preacher who says knowledge or science is bad. Knowledge will cure anything given enough wisdom & time.
Did you know the original version of Genesis in the bible, it said that Eve ate from the the tree of the forbidden fruit because the devil said it would make her as powerful as god? It was a lesson to teach about greed, & the lust for power in people. Later it was re-written to say she ate from the tree of knowledge because it would make her as wise as god. Early on, religious leaders figured out they can control more people & the church would be more powerful if they made knowledge a bad thing, & kept the population ignorant. So Genesis was re-written to make knowledge to sound like a bad thing. They made it look like it was all Eve's fault to enslave & silence the female half of the population. By controlling the bigger, stronger more dominant half of the population (males), the weaker half had no choice but to submit. It's easier to control a half of a population than all of it. One of the reasons Islam is so popular is because the males like the idea that they can enslave, dominate, & control all the females in their society... without guilt or blame because it's "god's" will.
Slavery was very popular for thousands of years among slave owners. Free labor, sex, & submission from all you control... to play god with other people's lives. That's one of the evils of humans that the original story Genesis tried to teach us about. It doesn't matter if it was true or not. It was very ancient texts written to teach us about the evils of greed, the lust for power, & the desire to play god.
The devil came about as a scapegoat to keep us coming to the temples & praying, otherwise no matter how good you tried to be, the demons may come by at night to bite your toes, or steal your children. Being good, wasn't good enough. You had to keep coming to the temple to pray, so you're "protected" from evil spirits & people. Nobody was a bad boy anymore, the devil made them do it, & caused all problems. Now everybody could be as bad as they wished with no guilt, because all bad came from the devil, & because you were good enough to go to church.
We may be the fallen angels. The battle between good or evil may be within ourselves. The devil didn't do it. We did.
One day a deeply religious person was studying nature for signs of god. After studying the mating habits of cats, he decided they were evil. He didn't like cats much in the first place, so they probably tried to bite & scratch him a lot too, because he wasn't nice to them. His research spread through the church, so most of Europe's cats got wiped out. There were many farmers who know cats kept away vermin (they eat rodents & bugs but don't eat crops & food storage), & were great for the farm. But rather than being accused of being a heretic, witch, or evil, getting their property taken away, imprisoned, & possibly put to death, they had to get rid of the cats.
Within a couple years most of Europe was starving because vermin had infested crops & stored food. Weak, diseased, already from malnutrition & vermin, then the plague wiped out a lot of Europe. It was spread by fleas from the rodents that overran the towns & farms after most of the cats disappeared. But after the cause of the plague was discovered, the church still singled out widowed elderly women with a cat, as witches so they can get wealthy by taking away their property & executing them. Even early sellers to the America knew if you were an elderly woman who's husband passed away or are single, that they could not have a cat around, or the village & church would make trouble for them. All that pain, suffering, & death, in Europe & America caused by a single religious researcher deciding cats are evil.
Billions of women persecuted, & knowledge considered evil for well over a thousand years because a church decided to change just a few words around in Genesis. Over 1,000 years wasted. Just think how far we would have come by now if things were just a little different, & we didn't burn libraries, books, & scrolls in ancient times. Archeology is only now discovering that scientific discoveries we made in the past few hundred years, were previously discovered thousands of years ago, & then lost.
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